Navigation

Navigation

Navigation

Staff

Staff

Mike Shannon, Editor-in-Chief: Mike Shannon (not the former third baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals) is the co-founder and current Editor-in-Chief of Spitball. He is the author of more than twenty baseball books, including Diamond Classics: Essays on 100 of the Best Baseball Books Ever Published (McFarland); Baseball: the Writers’ Game (Potomac Books); Tales From The Dugout: The Greatest True Baseball Stories Ever Told (McGraw-Hill); Tales From The Ballpark: More of the Greatest True Baseball Stories Ever Told (McGraw-Hill); Riverfront Stadium: Home of the Big Red Machine (Arcadia); Everything Happens in Chillicothe: A Summer in the Frontier League with Max McLeary, the One-Eyed Umpire (McFarland); More Tales from the Dugout; Willie Mays: Art in the Outfield (University of Alabama Press); Hutch (McFarland), a graphic novel about the life and baseball career of Fred Hutchinson; Cincinnati Reds Legends (Kent State University Press); and Legends of Giants Baseball (Kent State University Press). A life-long Willie Mays and San Francisco Giants fan, Shannon was given the 2009 Tony Salin Memorial Award by The Baseball Reliquary. He lives in Walton Kentucky, with his wife, the former Kathy Dermody. Mike and Derms are the proud parents of five children (Meg, Casey, Mickey, Babe, and Nolan Ryan) and the grandparents of seven wonderful grandchildren. To learn more about Mike Shannon and his baseball books, please visit mikeshannonbooks.com.

William J. McGill, Poetry Editor: Bill McGill is a writer, retired college teacher/administrator (Senior Vice President and Dean of the Faculty Emeritus, Lebanon Valley College), Episcopal priest, actor, and St. Louis Cardinals fan. He is the author of The Rock Springs Chronicles, a volume of interconnected stories; and he has published numerous scholarly articles on history, literature, and religion in professional journals, as well as many short stories and poems in a variety of literary magazines. Associated with Spitball since 1993, he also serves on the boards of the Pennsylvania School of Art and Design (Lancaster, PA) and Concertante, a chamber music ensemble based in Harrisburg. He is the winner of a 2008 McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award for his article "The Greatest College Pitcher: George Sisler at Michigan."

Mark W. Schraf, Fiction Editor: A life-long fan of Roberto Clemente and the Pittsburgh Pirates, Mark Schraf is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh (B.S., 1985) and West Virginia University (M.S., 1990). The author of Cooperstown Verses: Poems About Each Hall of Famer and I Saw Rod Scurry, a chapbook of baseball poetry, Schraf is seeking a publisher for a collection of his best baseball short stories and for his recently-completed mystery novel about baseball books and baseball book collecting. He is a chemistry professor at West Virginia University and a sports reporter for the Morgantown Dominion Post, and he lives in Morgantown, West Virginia, with his wife Jeanne and their children Zach and Kaylee. Mark recently won the 2011-2012 West Virginia University Eberly College of Arts & Sciences Outstanding Teaching Award and is at work on a comic baseball novel about zombies called The Great Zombino.

Tom Eckel, Book Review Editor: A degreed chemical engineer and currently vice president of a large packaging company in Cincinnati, Eckel began collecting baseball books 40 years ago and has amassed a library of over 12,000 baseball books and publications (he specializes in small run and privately printed books). He was once the statistician for the now defunct Charleston (WV) Charlies, was an early member of Project Retrosheet, and has been a SABR member for 28 years. He began working with Spitball in 1997, providing book reviews, serving on the CASEY Award selection committee, and helping to introduce CASEY Nominees at the annual CASEY Awards Banquet. Tom completed 20 Boston Marathons and won the 2010 Ohio Senior Olympics 1500 meters race. He has been married for 28 years to the former Jane Harper. They have two children: Jason, a graduate of Michigan State University, and Jenny, a graduate and former gymnast at Kent State University.

Scott Hannig, Art Director & Cover Artist: A native of Cincinnati and a lifelong Reds fan (whose favorite player was Hal King), Scott Hannig is one of the leading baseball artists in the country. He began his career by painting portraits of players from the Big Red Machine and donating the portraits to the former Reds who participated in the Old Timers Games played at the replica Crosley Field built in Blue Ash, Ohio. Hannig contributed three works to the traveling Willie Mays commemorative art show ("24 At 75") and illustrated a graphic novel about former Reds manager Fred Hutchinson, producing more than 800 separate works of art for the book. The inventor of an ingenious series of desk clocks modeled after the scoreboards of famous ballparks (Pastimes Scoreboards), Hannig lives in Miamisburg, Ohio, with his wife, Tammy, and their children, Joe, William, and Julia. He is currently doing numerous paintings of Cincinnati Reds players for a forthcoming book from Kent State University Press called Cincinnati Reds Legends.

Keith Schneider, Web Designer: A lifelong resident of Cincinnati, Ohio, and a descendant of the founders of the Schneider Home Improvement Company, Keith Schneider is a graduate of LaSalle Catholic High School and the University of Cincinnati, from which he received (in 2006) a B.S. degree in Information Engineering Technology. An expert water/snow skier and weight lifter, Keith works in the Business Services department of the Greater Cincinnati Water Works. He resides in Cincinnati with his beautiful wife, the former Casey Mary Shannon and their children, Ronan Michael and Finleigh.

Donnie Pollard, Layout and Graphics: A graduate of the ACA College of Design (Cincinnati, OH), Donnie Pollard is the Hot Market Graphics Manager for the Sports Licensing Division of the adidas Group in Indianapolis, Indiana. As the former Art Director of Spitball, Donnie was responsible for the initial professional design of the Magazine and magazine logo in 1993, as well as the current 3rd-generation logo, which graces the current masthead. The possessor of world class drawing ability, he produced a series of stunning pen & ink player portraits which graced the covers of Spitball for years. A life-long Pittsburgh Pirates and Steelers fan, Pollard has been managing and playing center field for Men's Senior Baseball League teams in Indianapolis since 1994. His Indy Pirates team won league championships in 2009 and 2012. His son Kellen also plays for the Indy Pirates. His cover of Deacon White for the Fall 2013 issue is one of the most popular Spitball covers to ever appear.